Catching the Process Fieldbus

Catching the Process Fieldbus: An Introduction to Profibus for Process Automation (first edition) is available for purchase in hardcover from Amazon here.

The second edition is available as a free download. Now including PROFINET. Download is available via PDF, MOBI, or EPUB.

The book’s Foreword:

To the beginner, the world of industrial communications appears as a multilayered, multidimensional, occasionally confusing mixture of fieldbuses, software packages, and media. During my twenty years of enthusiastic pursuit and promotion of industrial communications, I have become used to seeing that deer-in-the-headlights look of a newcomer to the field, and decided to see if I could take the fieldbus world, specifically that of PROFIBUS and PROFINET, and take away some of the mystery and magic that cloaks it.

My intent was not to write the definitive and comprehensive handbook on PROFIBUS and PROFINET. There are others who are far more qualified than I to undertake that task. I wanted to show that when industrial communications is understood and then installed with forethought and care, network operation can be both beneficial and painless.

To that end, we designed this book to speak to the beginner, to take that interested newbie by the hand and guide him/her through the bus route to communication success. However, this is not a how-to manual. Rather, think of it as a primer laying the groundwork for communication design, providing information for the curious to explore and motivation for the dedicated to go further.

So, we discuss BUS operations, protocol details, physical layers and networks, network design basics, installation tips and suggestions, commissioning, maintenance, plant asset management, and troubleshooting. All of these topics are designed to speak to the beginner – to take the whole of PROFIBUS and PROFINET as a fieldbus systems and spread them out for everyone to sample and to investigate.

Our hope is that you will leave this book with a firm understanding of what you will need to implement a PROFIBUS and PROFINET systems, and that you will look further into how PROFIBUS and PROFINET can help you and your organization improve safety, efficiencies, and productivity.